Pics, Wilma recap, Birds

Here are some pics from Wilma. There are pics taken the day before, the day of and then the day after.

For whatever reason I haven’t had a real urge to go into great detail about my Wilma experience. Here is what comes to mind.

Ali’s job at the nursing home requires her to be there during hurricanes so I had to take her to work on Sunday night so she could sleep over there. All the forecasts still indicated that Wilma would be a Cat 1 or weak Cat 2 when it hit so we were concerned but not overly so. Our office was closed for Monday and since I knew that we would probably be without power for a little while, I stayed up late geeking on the computer, till 1am. When I went to bed early Monday morning there was some strong breezes but nothing major as of yet. I fell asleep like a rock.

I was jarred out of my sleep by the phone. I looked at the clock and it said 6am. I mumbled hello and it was Ali, she was surprised I was still sleeping. Evidently the heavy weather had started already and I noticed that we had lost power already as well. As the grogginess passed I focused on the howling outside and I knew it had begun. Ali said they had heavy winds for most of the night already and lost power as well. I hung up and went out to the dark great room that was filled with the noises from beeping UPS’s backed up by the sound of the wind and rain pounding on the exposed part of the sliding door in the back. I grabbed a flashlight and shined it outside and saw horizontal rain pounding away. The noise was intimidating and I immediately noticed how the rain was being forced through the bottom of the slider and splashing into the track and the carpet.

I fired up the battery operated TV and ate my pop tarts at the kitchen counter, using a big flashlight as my light source. I saw the imagery of the huge storm coming on shore and initial reports of how it is now a CAT 3 with winds 120 mph plus. Nice, they f’d the forecast again. I watched the storm loop over and over again as they had that on the screen constantly as the news crew spoke in the background. Finally as daylight broke I got a better look outside. The first thing I noticed was the winds were coming from the north instead of the south. I expected them to hit the front of the house like Charley did but instead they were slamming the back of the house. As daylight grew so did the power of the storm. I left the one section of the slider exposed because I thought the winds would hit the front of the house. I was regretting that decision as I pulled out the video camera and stood against the glass. I could feel it bowing in and I was immediately concerned it could implode in and then I would have a real mess on my hands. So for about 20 minutes I leaned on the glass, acting as a brace. I realized that I couldn’t do that forever, so I slid over the big chair and wedged it against the glass. Once full daylight hours had arrived the storm’s full power was on our house. Looking out the back looked like it was something out of a movie. The entire backyard was under water with whitecaps rolling in against the mound the house is built on. It looked like I was in a high speed wind tunnel as the wind whipped water vapor rushed towards the house and then slashed left and right as it encountered obstacles along the way. Hopefully I can rip some of that video and get it online.

The sound alone was enough to strike fear in most people. You would get a small reprieve and then when you thought the winds couldn’t blow any harder, it did. All the landscape in my field of vision was being punished severly, wilting under the power of the wind. However the shed which is just wood and siding construction was holding up even though it was squarely in the path of the oncoming winds. I guess they were serious when they said it was rated to 120. The pool cage had some minor damage, I saw a couple screen panels had ripped out and one or two braces in the top of the cage had broken loose. Eh, no big deal.

As I monitored the storm progress on TV it looked to be totally over land and that we should be in the backside of the eye which is supposed to be less severe. Instead, the wind shifted to the west and intensified. Evidently, the cold front that was predicted to weaken the storm instead strengthened it’s tail end. I got a call from my buddy from work, comparing notes and as I watched, the pool cage got ripped apart. It sort of collapsed in the middle and once that happened, the loose parts caught wind and accelerated the destruction. In less than a minute it was gone. I was taken back by the incident and called Ali to tell her of our first severe storm related damage. She was in a non-windowed area so she couldn’t really see what was going on so she was surprised as well.

I continued to watch the carnage. I saw interesting sights as debris flew around everywhere. I watched with amazement as a salt tank blew from way behind our property all the way to the road in front of our place, a distance of at least 700 feet. Finally, somewhere between 10 and 11 things started to ratchet down. I was able to set foot outside and although it was still very windy, I could stay on my feet. Nicki had to go to bathroom very badly at this point so she did so quickly while she was squatting in very strong wind and pelting rain. A quick walk around the house looked like we were on an island. The water was as high as I ever saw. Up front it was as high as the road. Most of our landscape was either snapped or had a hard lean to the south. The pool cage was a tattered mess with some of it up on the roof, some of it submerged in the pool and the rest flattened around the perimeter of the cement pad. It wasn’t a pretty sight, however the good thing was the house itself seemed to hold up without incident, we didn’t lose one shingle off the roof.

A little after lunch I got the call from Ali that she was allowed to come home. I was worried about the passability of the roads but Nicki and I ventured out to get her. The drive in was unforgettable with scenes of destruction everywhere. Traffic lights sitting in the road, debris everywhere, trees snapped or toppled everywhere and homes with various damage. As I got closer to Naples the scale of damage increased. I went by a mobile home park where certain homes looked fine while others looked like they were ripped open with a can opener. I saw car port roofs wrapped aroud poles and as I got close to Ali’s work the damage was really severe, huge old banyan tress were knocked down everywhere, roofs were damaged, street signs flattened and destruction was a visual constant. I picked up Ali and on the trip back she got to witness the destruction for the first time.

We got back to a dark house but I remedied that by firing up the generator which gaves us power for the fridge, lights, the water equipment and tv. We watched more storm news which began to give more detail regarding the mess which was huge. Basically all of southern florida, east and west coast got hammered. Thankfully the passing of the storm also brought our first cool front of the year so we didn’t have the issue of sweating your ass off since the temperature was now in the 60’s. Through careful cord unplugging and plugging we were able to do things like use the microwave to prepare meals. I had our computers up at one point but had no internet access so there wasn’t much point to it.

For the first 2 days it wasn’t bad, on Tuesday after taking pictures of the damage, I attacked what was left of the pool cage with a hand sledge and knocked it apart, piling up the remains on the hill behind it. I also straightened all the trees I could and staked them fast. The 2 big oaks required me to attach a steel cable to the truck and pull them up. If you look at the pictures you can see the results, not bad. On Tuesday we still had some lukewarm water available for showers. Ali had to work everyday but our office was closed through Thursday so after I did my initial clean up I had time on my hands. Since WoW was unavailable I decided to fire up the laptop and install an old favorite of mine, Starcraft. I worked on getting through the single player missions which was a nice time eater. I quickly remembered why I was so addicted to the game. The rest of my time was spent trying to further our comfort level. Having running water was nice but no hot water was a pain in the ass. I racked my brains on how I could get us hot water. I came up with a strange plan. I bought the last 3, largest capacity aquarium heaters I could find at the local Wal-Mart. I turned them to the max setting and threw them in the holding tank. After a few hours the water felt warm and I was excited at the prospect of having warm water. That night I told Ali to start the shower and wait for warm water to start flowing, which it never did. At best, less cold water came out. Evidently the water was not warm enough to combat the cold water already in the system. I was grumbling to myself as I only washed my head, face and other essential areas in the cold streams. On the second day I thought that maybe if I cut off well water to the holding tank it would allow warm water to flow, nah , no good it was still cold. On Thursday I decided to try something else.

I went to Lowes first, looking for the materials to make a cord to connect my generator directly to the hot water heater circuit. Originally I had heard it was not smart to hook directly to the fuse box because of the danger of backfeeding into the utility system, which could cause disasterous results. However after talking to some employees at Lowes and Home Depot I felt assured that as long as I threw our main breaker before attaching to the box, I would be fine. After striking out for raw materials at Lowes I got lucky and got the correct plug and 50 feet of cable from Home Depot. When I got home I followed the verbal instructions I received and hooked in. When I plugged in to the generator I held my breath as I had visions of smoke coming out or something blowing up. It attached without a fuss and when I went in and touched the heater I could feel a light vibration so I hoped it was working. I gave it an hour or so and was thrilled to feel slightly warm water coming out of the faucet, hot shower tonight, wahoo!!!! When Ali got home, I proudly showed her my handywork. She appreciated what I did all week in an effort to make things as comfortable as I could and my latest effort received more accolades. However about an hour later I noticed my neighbors sprinklers pop up. Hmmmm, how can they work without power to run the pump? I walked over to their house and looked and saw lights on the pool heater. Then I looked down the street and saw a house with it’s outside lights on. Could it be? I ran inside and told Ali I think we have power back. I hurriedly disconnected the generator from the breaker box, threw the main and flipped all the individual breakers on. It was a sweet sound as I heard things springing to life as I threw it’s associated breaker. In a weird way I was bummed we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the end result of water heater work but at least if there is a next time, I will know the drill. Ali and I were thrilled all night to be able to once again enjoy what we took for granted, electricity.

When I finally went back to work on Friday, people traded stories and compared notes on degrees of loss. I was surprised how many people still didn’t have power, many of them living much closer in than me. My mom was among the ones without power. I offered for her to come out and stay with us repeatedly until she got power which she declined. She said in a weird way she enjoyed the challenge of getting through each day without power. Ok, whatever mom.

Here are some other random thoughts associated with the storm

I think emergency officials overall did a good job of reacting to the damage. They were quick to begin work on clearing the roadways and addressing issues. The huge police force this county has came in handy with deputies manning most busy intersections to direct traffic

Cell phone conversations were ajoke during the week. I would walk around the house till I found a spot where I had a bar or two and try to make a call. If I got lucky enough to connect, I would try to quickly blurt out what had to be communicated before I was disconnected. It was hit or miss with miss being the large majority.

Marco Island which was very close to landfall had full power restoration in 3 days

The Everglades City city hall, which housed one of our branches was condemned

We still do not have cable or internet. A tech was out Saturday and it worked for a bit but now it’s totally out again. Our neighbors are fine.

The phone is a mess, although we get dial tone, the line is unuseable as it is filled with static and clicking. The same thing happened after hurricane Charley last year and took 2 or 3 months to fully clear up.

The rain and wind was so intense on the back of the house that it stripped paint.

Running a generator is not cheap, especially with today’s gas prices. I bet I used at least 10 gallons a day, multiply that times 4 days.

I’ve been asked multiple times if it is enough to make me consider moving out of the area to “safer” destinations. Nope, not at all. I have too much invested here and enjoy the weather too much to reconsider at this point.

The Eagles game yesterday was terrible. During 75% of the game, the Eagles looked like the worst team in the NFL. Their defense was porous and the offense was so pathetic it was beyond description. However as bad as it was, I didn’t take it all that hard because I already had decided that a trip back to the Super Bowl is unlikely for this team. The off the field issues, added into McNabb’s injury and Andy’s unbelevably lopsided, one dimensional play calling makes me feel like a return to the playoffs for this team will be about as much as I can hope for.